(1948 -) Alison Wilding was born in Blackburn, Lancashire. She studied at Ravensbourne College of Art and, from 1970 to 1973, at the Royal College of Art in London. Her sculpture is closely concerned with the physical qualities of materials. She uses traditional as well as contemporary sculptural processes, such as modelling, carving, casting and constructing to explore the contrasts and relationships between materials. Her sculptures often consist of two separate elements, which suggest opposites such as positive-negative, male-female, light-dark. She uses a wide range of materials, including copper, wood, beeswax, lead, galvanised steel, transparent plastics, silk, fossils, rubber and paints; these enable her to establish unusual juxtapositions of form, colour and surface. She was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1988 and 1992.